Professional models are a purely² modern invention.  To the Greeks, for instance, they were quite unknown.  Mr. Mahaffy, it is true, tells us that Pericles used to present peacocks to the great ladies of Athenian society in order to induce them to sit to his friend Phidias, and we know that Polygnotus introduced into his picture of the Trojan women the face of Elpinice, the celebrated³ sister of the great Conservative leader of the day, but these grandes dames⁴ clearly do not come under our category.  As for the old masters, they undoubtedly⁵ made constant studies from their pupils and apprentices⁶, and even their religious pictures are full of the portraits of their friends and relations, but they do not seem to have had the inestimable advantage of the existence of a class of people whose sole profession is to pose.  In fact the model, in our sense of the word, is the direct creation of Academic Schools.

 

Every country now has its own models, except America.  In New York, and even in Boston, a good model is so great a rarity that most of the artists are reduced to painting Niagara and millionaires.  In Europe, however, it is different.  Here we have plenty of models, and of every nationality.  The Italian models are the best.  The natural grace of their attitudes, as well as the wonderful picturesqueness⁸ of their colouring, makes them facile—often too facile—subjects for the painter’s brush.  The French models, though not so beautiful as the Italian, possess a quickness of intellectual sympathy, a capacity, in fact, of understanding the artist, which is quite remarkable⁹.  They have also a great command over the varieties of facial expression, are peculiarly dramatic, and can

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